Destitute refugees now comprise half the people living in Lebanon, Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, has said during his visit to New York.
He added that refugees are attractive targets for terrorist recruiting, and their continued presence threatens to drown Lebanon's identity, he said.
Cardinal Rai spoke yesterday at Catholic Near East Welfare Association headquarters in New York while in the United States for a pastoral visit.
A permanent solution to the refugee crises throughout the Middle East requires lasting peace and the repatriation of refugees, not resettlement to third countries, he added.
